First FUSS Meeting – Oct 7

October 7, 2011 marked the first monthly meeting of the Faculty Users of SmartSite (FUSS). Attendees included representatives from Languages & Linguistics, the University Writing Program, Biological Sciences, Plant Sciences, and Geology.

Dr. Andy Jones, Academic Associate Director of Academic Technology Services, kicked off the meeting by explaining the purpose of FUSS: “These meetings will be faculty-centered, aiming to hear faculty concerns so we can note and address them, start initiatives, and explore innovative ways faculty can use SmartSite.”

After reporting recent updates to SmartSite, such as the Gradebook innovations, the group turned to a discussion of clickers. The floor was then opened for questions, during which faculty members received specific answers from the faculty technology trainers, Fernando Soccorro and Steve Faith, and the SmartSite programmer, Thomas Ansler. Transcriptions of this Q&A session can be found in the meeting minutes.

The meeting concluded with a presentation by Steve Faith, who showed the group how to embed a video and a TitanPad into SmartSite. The TitanPad functions like a Google doc – multiple people can type into the document simultaneously. When you embed this tool with a video, your students can watch the video and discuss it on the same page, and it’s all within SmartSite. View Steve’s step-by-step guide to embedding the video and TitanPad.